A wide variety of implantable medical devices that deliver a therapy or monitor a physiologic condition of a patient have been clinically implanted or proposed for clinical implantation in patients. Many of these implantable medical devices rely on an energy storage component, such as a capacitor, to store energy and supply the energy to the patient in form of electrical stimulation therapy. In the case of defibrillation therapy, the implantable medical device may generate a relatively high voltage pulse or series of pulses to a patient suffering from tachyarrhythmia.
Due to the nature of defibrillation therapy or other high voltage therapy, it is not practical for the implantable medical device to supply the energy upon instantaneous demand by drawing from the power source. In other words, a battery or other power source of the implantable medical device is not capable of providing such energy instantaneously. Instead, energy from the power source is accumulated over a certain period of time in one or more defibrillator capacitors which are later discharged to deliver the desired defibrillation therapy. It is desirable that components of the implantable medical device are not unexpectedly stressed during unusual operating conditions.